Tire for motor vehicles



Dec. 13, 1927.

2 Sneaks-Sheet 1 Filed June 24, 1922 Dec. 13, 1927. 1,652,670

E. HOPKINSON ET AL TIRE FOR MOTOR VEHICLES v Filed June 24. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 avwemtom.

Patented Dec. 13, 1927.

UNITED STATES "PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST HOPKINSON AND JOHN P. ODE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.; SAID COE ASSIGNOB HIS RIGHT TO MORGAN 85 WRIGHT, A CORPORATION OF MICHIGAN.

TIRE FOR MOTOR VEHICLES.

Application filed June 24, 1922. Serial No: 570,714.

;Casings for motor vehicles at the present tlme are made of a carcass consisting of a variable number of plies of fabric anchored at their opposite margins to extensible or inextensible bead members and an outer sheathing of rubber composition varying in.

thickness but usually, if not invariably, most thick at the tread where the wear is greatest. The building of the multi-ply carcass requires skillful workers and much time.

Separation inevitably follows faulty workmanship or lack of vigilance in all stages of beadsalthough a-sheet or sheets offabric may be employed as a facin and not to substantially limit the distenslbility' of the casing when inflated by the inner tubewhich casing as compared with its predecessors may be built more rapidly and without as skilled workmen, whichfeliminates many disadvantages and costs attending manufacture, and which insures against punctures to a very desirable degree, if not absolutely for all ractical purposes. And these aims and ad irantages are realized in the type of casing. that is demountableand i attachable by the user, and that aflo ds a shock absorbing support or cushion fo the vehicle comparable, if not fully equal, to the present day casing with a multi-ply fabric carcass and rubber tread.

Various embodiments of the principles of the invention are illustrated in the accomi panying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a cross section of a clincher type "of easing especially suitable for passenger cars;

Fig. '2 is a cross section of a clincher type of easing particularly suitable for trucks;

3 Figs. 3 and 4 are cross-sections of "straight-side casings provided respectively with horizontal and vertical webs or walls capable of utility with more or less advantagehas a cushioning means,

e casing may be in various forms and composition thick enough any suitable and convenient method of manufacture may be employed.

In Fig. 1 is disclosed a clincher type of easing equipped marginally with bead members of relatively hard vulcanized rubbercomposition 8, which may extend up the side walls to a suitable distance, such as that indicated, to stiffen the casing somewhat adjacent the rim flanges. The composition 8 is preferably blended into the mar ins or skirts 4 of the tread 5, which is ma e of a softer vulcanized rubber composition such as yields under load muchthe same as the present day tread stocks. The tread 5 and side 6,0f thecasing are relatively thick and rigid, and capable of carrying some of the load that is designedto be supported primarily, or most largely, in service by the inner tube 7, This latter, enclosed as usual in the casing, is somewhat smaller than customary to permit the walls of the casing bemg made entirely of vulcanized rubber to resist the stresses produced upon inflation of the imler tube to a riding pressure. The inner tube may be introduced and removed as usual. In addition to furnishingthe requisite uick responsiveness to shocks, the inner tu .e is relied upon to hold the margins of the easing to the rim and render the casing demountable and hence, practical for ordlnary gsclers without resort to a service station. for

The bead members 8 are made extensible enough for mounting on a one-piece unbroken clincher rim. The side walls from the beads toward the tread are progressively reduced in hardness so as to increase in flexibility toward the road-engaging tread, this being accomplished in any convenient fashion, as by varying the sulphur incorporated in the walls, or by spliclng, or otherwise blending, together strips of green stocks which have been variously com pounded, to gradually diminish the hardness of the composition from the beads toward the tread. V

In Fig. 2 of the drawin s is illustrated a clincher type of casing1 w ich is especially lt oug suitable for trucks-a h it may be used on passenger cars if desired. In this fi ure of the drawings, the casing shown is a ttle wider than deep so as to permit ofencaslng an' inner tube.

This enables the side wall 11 being made short in a direction radially of the wheel and therefore relatively stable inflation, the tread 13 is bulged out slightly.

This insures immediate cushioning of the load by the compressed air in the tube and renders the tire predominately pneumatic. Abnormally large shocks, however, beyond the capacity of the inner tube to sustain by reason of the limited area thereof, which is brought into play, are ultimatelyresisted by the cushioning side walls 11. In Fig. 2, the tread 13 is shown equipped with an inner nose or annular rib 14, which is designed not only to supplement the cushioning action of the side walls, but also in the remote event of puncture, to assist in holding the margins of the casin to the rim.

The bead mem ers for the type illustrated in Fig. 2 may be of any suitable construction. A preferred form is as is illustrated in Fig. 2 in which previously cured hard-rubber covered wires 16 are shown surrounded by more or. less vertically disposed strips of fabric 17 which are imbeddcd 1n the harder rubber composition 18, which may be carried as illustrated at 19 part way up into the side walls of the casing. As in the'previously described construction of Fig. 1 the hard rubber may be blended'into the soft rubber so as not to present a clear, sharp line of demarkation between the hard and soft rubber stocks and so as to gradually increase the flexibility of the walls from the beaded margins toward the tread.

In Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings are illustrated two modifications whose rim-engaging portions are beaded and reinforced with hard rubber composition extending up into their side walls and blending into the soft rubber composition in substantially the same manner as described in connection with Fig.

1 of the drawings. The tread of the casing shown in Fig. 3 however is hollowed out to provide a completely enclosed cavity 20 and is also channeled or divided adjacent its inner periphery to provide a space for receiving aninflatable tube 21. Between the annular cavity 20 and the inner tube 21, a horizontally disposed web 22 of vulcanizable rubber composition is formed to stay the-side walls 23. against bulging.

In Fig. 4 of the drawings, a casin is ill strate'd with sidewalls 24 of slig tly re ced thickness and there is provided a centrally disposed and vertically extending web 25 which is designed to rest upon and be supported by an inner tube 26, preferably reinforced with one or more incorporated plies of fabric 27 tolimitits disten?ien withcal extent.

out impairinlgnits flexibility to an impractiboth Figs. ,3 and 4, the inner of easing tube is primarily a means for securing the reinforced margins of the casing to the rim. In all the above described forms of the invention, it will be noted that the casing is made entirely of vulcanized rubber compo sition excepting at its rim-engaging portions where it may be equipped with any suitable construction for totally, or largely, resisting distension when the inner tube is inflated. Inextensible bead wires may be employed, or send-extensible beads of the kind commonly employed in clincher casings. in the past, and thesemay be used with or without fabric or hard rubber surrounding them. No plies of fabric having stressresisting-elements anchored as heretofore at their opposite ends to the bead members are employed and, therefore, have to be folded around the bead members and built into the tire at great expense. If desired, the fabrie facing, suchas indicated at 27, Fig. 1 of the drawings, may be employed to line the tube receiving cavity but this is manifestly incapable of resisting the distendin stresses set up by inflation of the inner tu e, these stresses being intended to be borne, according to our invention, chiefly, if not entirely, by the all-rubber structure of the casing.

If the casing is relatively high, we prefer to stiffen the side walls from the beads toward the tread and to an extent increasing with the height of the casing, but in all cases terminating short of the junction of the tread portions of the casing with the side walls. And preferably, this is accomplished by making the com osition of the stock of harder and harder c aracter from the tread to the beads to the end that the casing will be stifi'est where it engages the rim, and

therefrom gradually decrease in stiffness and increase in flexibility towards the tread. But if the side walls of the casing be relatively short and the rim-engaging ortions comparatively thick so that by its orm the casin resists lateral deformation, as when a'vehlcle upon which it is mounted is turned or sways, we may omit this feature entirely and employ soft rubber of identically the same com osition throughout. Of course, any suitab e vulcanizing agent may be employed, quick or cold-curing as well as those unctiomng when heat is applied to the green article. In this connection, distinc+ tion is made between the hard rubber employed for stifiening the margins of the casmg and the hard rubber employed to encase the bead members or grommet wires, the lat ter bein optimal in all forms of the invention alt ough their use is dictated by experience in the art.

The principles of the invention may be employed in a wide variety of forms and constructions, those illustrated bein disclosed merely for the pn j of indicat the breadth of the invention and not wi an mmmm may llimifim inlhmtion, and HHMTEL'EOIGB mlfw enw shmlll" m made t0 the mccompanymg whim fm" an understanding 0%? the scnpw Hm inwmimm,

5 Having thus dmscribed our immentmn, what WW-3 01mm and dwsire to pmtecfa by Lettem Patent is: o

A pmummic Mm casing for motor vehmhw having bead members a w and being made entirely M vulcanized rubapbed to fit a Tim bar wmposifcimn woetwreen said. head. memhem and pmgmssively increasing in flexibility fmm inks mmins towardfi its Wmd.

Sigmd at ew York, New Yfllk this flfilr'dl day M June, 1922. w

ERNEST HUPKTMINSNW iiwigmed all; New York, New York, thias 2am day of June 19%. 

